RP’s first liver center to rise soon

The country’s first liver center will be constructed as preparations for the project are now underway, Sen. Pia Cayetano announced yesterday.

Cayetano said the establishment of a national liver center came as a collective agreement from medical experts in noting the increasing number of Filipinos suffering from liver diseases.

"After several meeting and planning sessions with doctor’s groups and other stakeholders, we have agreed to implement the initial phase of the project toward the establishment of the country’s first liver center," she said.

Cayetano, chairwoman of the Senate committees on health and on demography, said the initial plan would include setting up a clinic and testing laboratory facility which will specialize on liver ailments at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Ermita, Manila.

The clinic is expected to be operational next year but the plans for construction of a liver center are also being pushed at the PGH.

The center will manage live-donor liver transplant programs, she said.

Cayetano said 10 percent of Filipinos are now infected with Hepatitis B, with still many unaware of their medical condition.

She said some P50 million would be initially earmarked for the center which will be financed partly from contributions of private institutions, including the Compañero Rene Cayetano Foundation.

Cayetano said she would also ask her fellow senators to allocate funds for the medical project.

"Putting up the country’s first liver center has been one of the visions of the Compañero Rene Cayetano Foundation, both in memory of my father and as our family’s contribution to nationwide efforts to battle diseases of the liver," she said.

Cayetano expressed her advocacy against liver-related diseases by citing her late father, Sen. Renato Cayetano, succumbed to complications of Hepatitis B and abdominal cancer two years ago.